Third Time's the Charm
by CrossoverQueen
Summary: He's her second love, she's his third shot at romance. They're bound to get lucky this time. [FreyMayura]
1. Pictures of You

**I. "Pictures of You" by The Cure (3:31PM-3:43PM)  
**

Frey doesn't have a lot of pictures of his life. In fact, he can barely remember ever being in front of or behind a camera at all.

So he's surprised when Mayura gives him exactly four pictures from her own life. There's a picture taken when she was six (She looks so adorable with short hair!), another from a school dance ("Is that Kyô you're dancing with, Mayura?"), a third with her and Alice laughing and shoving each other out of the frame ("Camera hogs, both of you."), and surprisingly, she's rather hesitant to show him the last one.

"It's a _really_ bad one--Mom tried to get a good picture, but I think we turned right when she took it..."

He tugs it out of her hands, then looks at it more thoughtfully.

It's a photo taken from behind the two of them. It's blurry and crooked and absolutely horrendous compared to the other three pictures--but it's obvious that Frey and Mayura are both smiling into the back.

-----  
**Note:** I wrote the first four drabbles all on the same day in about an hour. I was doing a write-off with Raedyn L., and even though I pretty much lost all energy and life, I have to admit it was fun. I've made some corrections, but otherwise everything is what I wrote in the ten/twenty minutes I got.

I am SERIOUSLY not satisfied with how Frey was handled. Yuu Watase is a fabulous manga-ka, but I just can't believe she hardly let Frey grow in character. He has the most significant losses out of everyone, and yet he hardly got any serious moments. He went home and found everyone else DEAD, his teacher died and didn't even leave a body to bury, and at age 15 he fell in love with his cousin and eventually found her drowned corpse in a lake.

And then he just--reverts back to normal. There aren't even hints if he's faking it or not. "Oh god, everyone's dead! My first love drowned herself because of me! ERIC! ...Hey Alice, how 'bout a kiss?"

So that's why I started leaping into Frey and Mayura's relationship, because Frey needs a GOOD ending more than anyone else. It doesn't even have to be happy, as long as it's not traumatic like most everything else was for him.

I don't own Alice 19th, nor any of its characters.


	2. Hair

**II. Hair (3:47PM-4:01PM)**

He likes Mayura's hair because it reminds him of Ida. There are differences, obviously; Mayura's hair is darker than Ida's was, more of a light brown than sheer gold--but it has the same waviness, the same length, the same captivating softness that makes him want to spend hours brushing it or braiding it, or even just running his hands through it because it is _really_._ Nice_._ Hair_.

But Frey likes her hair more than even Ida's, because while Ida's was almost too perfectly golden to look at, Mayura's is more human, with darker tints and streaks that kind of remind him of life.

The world is not perfect like his lovely cousin's hair, but Mayura's tainted light brown comes pretty damn close to it.


	3. Coffee

**III. Coffee (4:07 PM-4:38 PM)**

Since Mayura is still weak and bedridden and just plain worn out, Frey decides to go up to her room and talk to her a while. And since it is really cold this morning, he brings a mug of freshly-made coffee with him because cold brings back bad memories even though he always bitches about how FREAKIN' HUMID Japan is. Plus, he's kind of maybe addicted to coffee and can't stay awake until he's gotten at least half a mug into his system.

So they get to talking, or rather he does most of the talking after a few sips of coffee to jolt himself awake. And seemingly out of nowhere, Mayura asks him:

"Why'd you come up here so early?"

"Well, you're the only other person awake right now despite your assumed fatigue. Plus I like talking to you."

"..." Pause. Then: "Do I smell coffee?"

"You bet. Want some? Wait, no--never mind!"

"Why not?"

"It's a really bad habit of mine, sorry. Just... erase the last few seconds from memory."

"Frey, it's not like I'm a seven-year-old who gets hyper off sugar."

"Yes, well, I'm not sure you should drink any right now, because sick people don't drink coffee and I tend to mix about three tablespoons into mine. Your mom would kill me if I, I don't know, if I made you have a heart attack--"

"I'm not _sick_!" she says indignantly. "Now let me try some of your _super-strong_ coffee and I swear I'll leave you alone."

Silence. Frey hands over the mug with the air of a child giving up his most prized possession. Mayura tilts it into her mouth, grimaces as recently-boiled water burns her tongue, then hands it back contemplatively.

"It's... kind of sweet for really strong coffee. How much sugar did you use?"

"I don't use sugar; I use honey. Tastes better in the morning."

"Hmm. It's nice."

They end up passing the mug back and forth, till the last few drops are too cold to bother with. And strangely enough, he likes it this way.

He only _needs_ half a mug of coffee anyway--he might as well let Mayura drink the rest.


	4. Crack

**A/N: **The dialogue is completely added in. Everything else was just tweaked a bit.

**IV. Crack (4:40PM-4:56PM)**

If pasts could be walls, Frey's would be the sort of cracked, dilapidated, almost-past-repairing wall you find with old, uncared-for buildings. It's hard to fix everything that comes along, especially when every other sacred guide in your home sanctuary killed each other, and the last survivor of _that_ battle shot himself right in front of you because of guilt that really shouldn't have been there.

"It wasn't Terje's fault, you know. He always had this everything's-my-fault complex, even for the little things; when we were younger, he told me I was lucky to be an orphan because his own parents never wanted kids."

Eric--he would be the deepest, most painfully obvious crack in the wall because Frey pretty much owes his life to him, not to mention that whole trusted-mentor-he-goes-to-even-if-he-doesn't-need-help thing. It hurts to know that he's literally killed him with love, because when you trust someone as much as he trusted Eric, they start hiding incurable medical conditions from you and making deals with Darva to keep from feeling pain until they die, and then they don't even leave a body to bury like everyone else did.

"I feel kinda weird about talking to you so much. You hardly know anything about me, and here I am just rambling about half my life..."

Ida would be the nondescript, sort of average crack that could probably be painted over, but then after you look at her for a while you start to realize how much her death has affected you, and not just because of the killing-herself-when-she-couldn't-handle-the-truth because honestly, what was he supposed to have said?

"I really couldn't have taken care of her. I mean seriously, I was _fifteen_! I could barely even get a _job_, and she expected me to just... to _somehow_ be able to support two people? Maybe the whole running-away-to-live-an-idyllic-life plan would've worked in medieval times, or just _possibly_ if Uncle hadn't thrown me out, but sometimes I wonder if she really... _thought_ about what she was doing."

Pause.

"Now that I realize it, I haven't... visited her at all. I didn't even go to her funeral, but she'd have to understand that. Right?"

He supposes that Alice would be a wire-thin break that's fairly obvious but really isn't that big a deal. He does still love her quite a lot, but she fell for Kyô instead and now Frey's decided that if she's happy, then so is he. Besides, he wanted to find _a_ bride--that doesn't neccesarily mean Alice has to be the one.

"...I've just realized something. You know how Kyô broke up with you and I've been kind of... _not_ hitting on Alice for two weeks? Technically, this means we've switched girlfriends."

After a while he starts thinking about what Mayura's wall and how it'd be like that picture-perfect wall you see in commercials, except for this one huge spiderweb of cracks that looks like someone took a sledgehammer and bashed at it five or six times. You know, because of Darva possessing her and almost consuming her body and soul, until she finally saw how much Alice loved Kyô that is, and then she finally snapped out of her whole kill-my-lying-sister-and-cheating-ex mindset.

"I'm not saying I'm a mind-reader, but I bet you really stopped because it got too hard to stay mad at two of the people you care about most. Seeing how Alice really felt about him just sped it up."

"...That's not _too_ far off," Mayura finally says.


	5. Light Up

**Light Up**

Most of the time, Frey sleeps pretty well--no dreams, no disturbances, no taking-five-hours-to-get-to-sleep-and-then-waking-up-every-ten-minutes; that sort of thing. But sometimes everything comes crashing back into his mind, with blood and screaming and pain and crying and bells, and that's when he starts acting like a frightened little kid without his parents because really, that's what he was before he turned eighteen.

Tonight is one of those nights, and he finds himself stumbling downstairs, opening the door with a choked-out _vimuku_, staggering out into the rain and feeling his temperature drop so fast it's like his hands are getting crushed and stabbed at the same time, which is fine with him because he's Norwegian and cold is familiar and it hurts in more ways than one.

And then he hears himself talking, like he's recorded what to say earlier but now it's stuck on play and he can't stop because he can't quite grasp the idea of shutting his mouth--

"--sorry I'm sorry why's everyone _dead_ Terje, but it's not your fault 'cause it never was, Eric don't leave don't leave I hate being alone please stay because I'll help you and you have to stay here with me, STAY WITH ME!!!"And everything's still cold and dark and wet because it's supposed to be this way and--

"Frey? What th--"

"Eric!" And he's back to fifteen again, calling Eric's name as he crumbles to bits and _I'm holding as tight as I can why are you still breaking I hate being alone why does everyone **leave**?_ "Eric, why's everyone _leaving_?!"

"Frey, snap out of it!"

He doesn't pay attention to the not-Eric and keeps yelling at the top of his lungs, but then Person-Who-Isn't-Eric hauls him up and clamps a hand over his mouth and nose, which makes him flail a little but then he goes limp because now he's cold and suffocating and wet, is this what Ida felt like when she drowned?

"Goddamnit, Frey, what made you decide to be the local angst-pot?"

... Blink.

He gags on lack of air and shoves himself away. "...Kyô?..."

"You really should've told us if you were having nightmares, you know."

"Well _screw that_, person-who-stole-my-second-love," Frey snaps at him because he's just _not in the mood for normalcy_ right now. "Isn't coming home and finding everyone else dead--_violently_--reason enough to "have nightmares"?"

Air quotes for emphasis.

"Isn't my teacher dying in front of me--_in my arms_ no less--enough to make me "decide to be the local angst-pot"? And need I remind _you_ about my earring-which-is-really-my-cousin's-necklace, who drowned herself when I was fifteen because I told her to go back to her _real_ fiance? But no, apparently I have to be all unemotional and _tragic childhood_ and be gossiped about because I'm involved with two sisters!"

"Frey, where is all this _coming_ from?"

"NOT LISTENING, person-who-stole-my-second-love!" He stomps off in the house's vague direction and gets blocked by a sleepy Mei Lin and an irate Billy.

"Frey, what is _up _with your yelling?" Mei Lin asks.

"I'll tell you, pushy-Chinese-_starlet_," he snarls. "You all think I'm stuck in shameless-flirt mode, so that makes it okay for everyone _I_ care about to _die_ even though we went through this whole defeat-Darva-to-save-the-world shit because Alice's sister was having _problems with her ex_!"

"Christ, Frey--"

"There!" He jabs a finger at Billy. "That is exactly what I'm talking about! It's okay to fuss about everyone else's issues, but when it comes to me everyone just--just leaves me alone and expects me to be fine! I'm going to have to rebuild EVERYTHING by myself because, you know, everyone else is _dead_!" he spits the word out like he's bitten into something spoiled.

"Frey..." comes Alice's voice, right on cue. "Frey, we're sorry for not thinking about you..."

"Well you know _what_, second-love-who-fell-for-someone-else?" he asks softly, with a razor-fine edge. "Thoughts aren't going to bring Eric back. Thoughts wouldn't have kept everyone from killing each other and leaving me to fix what's left of it. Thoughts couldn't have stopped Terje from killing himself--for real this time! And thoughts sure didn't work when I brought Ida's corpse to Eric and asked him 'please bring her back, I have to tell her _I'm sorry_!'"

Frey doesn't care if nobody knows who Ida is or that Terje already tried to commit suicide (_we found him with an empty bottle of pills took six of us to even try keeping him alive I called 911 myself didn't I?_), because that's not the point and he just wants them to know that _yes_, he has the capacity for actual _feelings_.

And he's just about to spout off more resentment as he yanks the door open, only to come face-to-face with a queasily fuming Mayura.

"Frey, I don't care why you're yelling--"

"Neither do I, third-time's-the-charm--"

"--so just go off and be all--"

"--not up to being NORMAL right now if you haven't noticed!"

"--_shut UP_ until I take some medication and drug myself to sleep!"

So they've both finished yelling and are now glaring daggers at each other while everyone else watches uneasily.

Twitch. Still glaring.

And then for no absolutely reason at all, Mayura chuckles and Frey's mouth cracks into a smile as they fling arms around each other and pretty much forget they were even angry. (Mayura has to crane her neck up a little since her chin can't quite rest on his shoulder.)

"Feeling better, third-time's-the-charm?"

"Not really, but I'm definitely not mad anymore."

"So _that's _why you're not hitting on Alice anymore," Billy remarks.

"Don't care, boring-postal-worker."

----- **  
Notes:** Personally, I think Frey's the type of person to speak in long, hyphenated descriptions when he's angry, because even though it's technically amusing, it makes you feel bad at the same time. I had the worst time trying to make this sound natural and Frey-like, but I like how it turned out.


	6. He's a Pirate

**He's a Pirate  
**"...Frey?"

"Yes, Mayura?"

"I am never associating with you ever again."

"What?! Come on, Mayura, where's your sense of adventure?"

"I... I get horribly seasick, so I usually end up vomiting my "sense of adventure" into a bucket!"

"Oh, it can't be _that _bad," Frey waves it off and pulls her farther along the dock, but mentally he makes sure to get Mayura as far away from the oars as possible.

"Have fun, guys!" Alice calls and waves, the essence of happiness. "And don't worry, Frey, she doesn't get seasick at all!"

"Who gets _sea_sick on a _lake_?" Kyo asks as they leave.

Frey figures Mayura's just trying to bail out of it (no pun intended), but the minute they reach the edge of the dock she gives a nervous little squeak and _owowow when did she last cut her nails?!_

"Mayura, it's not like we're--going to get stranded--in the middle of the lake," he assures her while trying desperately to free his arm before she maims him for life.

"I _don't--like--boating_," she says through gritted teeth.

-  
It took Frey fifteen minutes and an almost-capsized boat, but he's pretty sure Mayura's calmed down. Now he just has to get the boat untied and--

"_Freywhatareyoudoing_?" Mayura says in a voice three octaves higher than normal, almost lunging to stop him as he reaches over to undo the knot.

"If we don't untie the boat, we can't... _get_ anywhere, you know."

"That's fine!"

-  
Ten minutes later, they're slowly and agonizingly carefully moving away from the dock. Frey stops about a third of the way to the center of the lake and makes sure the oars don't fall in, because if they do then it's a _really_ small chance someone as hydrophobic as Mayura would know how to swim.

"Hey Mayura, why are you so nervous about boating?"

"I... don't... know..." she fidgets the slightest bit, taking care not to rock the boat in any way shape or form. "I just never liked water that much. It's always moving and it makes me think I'm going to fall off whatever I'm standing on. I mean, I can swim pretty well, but only in a pool because then I can--see the bottom."

"Hm. Last time I checked, swimming didn't depend on whether you could see the bottom or not."

Silence.

"...You don't have any traumatic memories involving water, do you?"

"No."

Frey kind of feels sorry for her, because he's never ever ever been afraid of water in his life, not even when he found Ida's body in the lake, and he honestly can't imagine what it's like.

"Hey, Mayura?"

"What?"

"Could you stand up for a minute?"

She nods and stands up shakily, still kind of-not-willing-to-move, and he leans over and hugs her for about two seconds before he puts a foot on the edge of the boat.

"Frey... what are you doing?" she asks anxiously.

"ABANDON SHIP!" he yells out, completely ignoring Mayura's shrieked "_Frey!_" as he capsizes the boat and they both plummet into the water with a _splash_.

They reach the surface, Mayura sputtering and semi-outraged as she treads water.

"Frey, I _swear I will_--"

"Come on, Mayura, swim!" Half out of playfulness and half out of get-out-of-her-way-before-she-kills-me-ness, Frey immediately starts backstroking.

Two hours later they show up at Kyo's apartment, drenched and tired and not entirely unamused.


	7. Identity

**Notes:** The classic person-hears-about-person-and-encounters-person-unknowingly. Also, it's my version of the scene in Oishi's heart where Mayura runs into Frey and he goes, "She is SO my type!"  
-

Eric asks Mayura something one day, and she listens to him because there's really nothing else she can do in this place.

It's not like the Maram masters would let her go off and spend time at the library whenever she gets bored. She likes Eric, anyway--there's a sort of lonely despair that follows him around, and it makes her feel better about being so angry because at least _she's_ not quite so pathetic about it.

"I know this is strange to ask of you--but please try not to get Frey hurt."

"I'll try," she tells him automatically with the emotionless, almost alien voice she uses so frequently now.

He nods and leaves.

But after a while, after the darkness and the loneliness and the anger bore her out of her mind, a different question surfaces.

What does Frey look like--blonde? Darkhaired? Redhead?

Why does Eric care about him? Plans for revenge? Some vestige of affection? His own reasons?

Who is Frey?

And the words come out in answer, clumsy and halting and uncertain, like she's forgotten the words to her favorite song.

"_Who is... Frey_?"

-

"Watch out for Mayura--she's been taken over by Darva," Kyo warns Frey after most of his heat exhaustion subsides.

Frey nods and says he'll be careful--he's not representing his home sanctuary because he's an idiot.

But after looking around in the building for hoursminutesseconds, checking doors and knocking on them and unlocking them if he needs to, something makes him slow down and it's not the heat.

He doesn't know what Mayura looks like.

How can he _watch out_ for someone he's never seen?

And then, without warning, someone runs into him and nearly knocks him over.

It's not every day you come across people--_people_ people--in someone's inner heart, especially since Oishi's heart is a dried up, scorching desert with only the one apartment complex for shelter.

"Watch where you're going," the girl snaps at him.

"Sorry, I was looking for someone."

She scoffs and mutters something suspiciously scornful.

"...Hey..." the word comes out spontaneously and startles both of them. "Where are _you_ going in such a hurry?"

"Why are _you_ so preoccupied looking for someone?"

"Are you Mayura?" Frey feels something pulse, something dark and twisting and _angry_ that instantly puts him on guard.

"What's it to you?"

Something in her voice practically dares Frey to mention Kyo, but Frey gets the feeling that if he does, he will most likely regret it. So he says instead, in the most non-threatening voice he can manage, "Alice told me to look out for you."

"...Are y-you... Frey...?" Something is different with her voice. It's halting and broken now, like she's forgotten how to speak--or something is stopping her.

"Yes. I'm Frey."

She looks at him curiously, as if just realizing that he's standing there. All of her scorn is gone, just like that.

He looks back at her warily--is she tricking him? Catching him off guard by pretending to switch personalities?

"...You're the same--as me. It's not--f-fair... for us..."

And then, switching back to her former persona, she turns on her heel and runs off.

Like a smart person Frey just stands there, mouth agape and confused out of his wits.

_How does she know my name?_


End file.
